Rearth Chatbot: A Silver Medal for Sustainability

APU students’ Rearth project, a learning chatbot that helps people comprehend the 3Rs of reduce, reuse, and recycle while protecting the environment, won a Silver Medal at IAM2023.

From left: Olive Cheong Yu Xuan, Liew Kar Yan, and Loh Xue Li showed Rearth, a chatbot that could help save the world.

Climate change can cause flooding, changes in agriculture that result in food shortages, biodiversity loss, and economic losses when businesses are disrupted by damage to infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and buildings.  

We are able to reduce environmental impact and combat climate change by practising the 3Rs principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle and living a sustainable lifestyle.

For this reason, Olive Cheong Yu Xuan, Liew Kar Yan, and Loh Xue Li, Computer Systems (Intelligent Systems) students at Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU), created Rearth: We need Earth, You need Rearth, a chatbot that could help save the world.

Their innovation received a Silver Medal in the hybrid innovation competition, International Innovation ARSVOT Malaysia 2023 (IAM2023).

The ARSVOT Foundation, is a non-profit organisation that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship, hosts the IAM2023, an annual competition that highlights the latest ideas in science, technology, and engineering.

IAM2023, which was supported by the Human Resources Ministry’s Department of Skills Development, drew 600 groups or 2,500 students from local and international universities this year.

Rearth, according to Liew Kar Yan, was created for their Intro to AI module assignment, which was mentored by Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Vinothini Kasinathan and Dr. Julia Juremi.

Among the features/illustrations offered by the Rearth chatbot.

Their AI module project has been improved with a user-friendly and informative 3Rs quiz, which motivated them to create the chatbot after noticing how much waste is generated every day.

“Even small changes can have a big impact. We wanted to design a tool that could help people reduce their environmental effects.

“We hope that Rearth can help people learn more about the 3Rs and make small changes in their daily lives,” said Kar Yan, representing their team.

The Silver Medal is a remarkable achievement for the trio, and it is a testament to their hard work and dedication to combating climate change, as well as an encouragement to others.

The initiative of an APU student is an excellent example of how technology can be used to promote sustainability, since a chatbot is a simple and effective approach to educating people about the 3Rs, and it is certain to have a good impact on the environment.

Yu Xuan, Kar Yan, and Xue Li hope that one day they will be able to continue developing the chatbot by creating a mobile app version of the chatbot so that it may reach wider audiences and make a difference.